Summary: Miss F complained about the way the Council dealt with her homelessness application and placed her in unsuitable accommodation. We found fault. The Council has agreed to apologise and pay Miss F £600 to remedy distress and being in unsuitable B&B for two weeks longer than she should have been. It will also make a service improvement.

The complaint

1. Miss F complained about the way the Council dealt with her homelessness application and that she was in unsuitable accommodation. She also complained about poor communication from the Council.
2. Miss F says her and her children’s health and mental health has been seriously affected as a result.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
7. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

8. I have investigated events between August and December 2024, when Miss F complained to the Council. I have not investigated the Council’s actions in seeking new temporary accommodation after December 2024. This is because this would be a new complaint, as explained in paragraph 5.

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How I considered this complaint

9. I spoke to Miss F about her complaint and considered the information she and the Council sent and the relevant law and guidance.
10. Miss F and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

Homelessness relevant law and guidance

11. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities set out councils’ powers and duties to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
12. If someone contacts a council seeking accommodation and gives reason to believe they may be homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days, the council has a duty to make inquiries into what, if any, further duty it owes them. (Housing Act 1996, section 184 and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 6.2 and 18.5)
13. If councils are satisfied applicants are threatened with homelessness and eligible for assistance, they must take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness. These steps should follow an assessment and must be provided to the applicant in writing as their personalised housing plan. This is the prevention duty. (Housing Act 1996, section 189A and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraphs 11.6 and 11.18)

Relief duty and interim accommodation

14. If the person becomes homeless, the Council must help to secure suitable accommodation if it is satisfied that an applicant is homeless and eligible for assistance. (Housing Act 1996, section189B) This is the relief duty.
15. The relief duty requires an authority to “take reasonable steps” to help the applicant to secure suitable accommodation which is available for occupation for at least six months. “Help to secure” does not mean that the authority has to source and provide accommodation, but that it should try to agree reasonable steps for itself and the applicant which could result in accommodation being found.
16. A council must secure interim accommodation for an applicant and their household if it has reason to believe the applicant may be homeless, eligible for assistance and have a priority need. (Housing Act 1996, section 188) Applicants in priority need may include people who have dependent children.

Main housing duty and temporary accommodation

17. When the relief period ends the authority must decide whether it owes the person the main housing duty. It will owe the main housing duty to applicants who are eligible, have a priority need for accommodation and who are not homeless intentionally. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)
18. The Code of Guidance states that people owed the main housing duty should be notified the day after the relief duty ends.
19. If the authority accepts the main duty, it must then secure that suitable accommodation is available for occupation by the applicant. The accommodation a council provides until it can end this duty is called temporary accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 193)

Suitability of accommodation

20. The law says councils must ensure all accommodation (interim and temporary) provided to homeless applicants is suitable for the needs of the applicant and members of his or her household. (Housing Act 1996, section 206 and Homelessness Code of Guidance 17.2)
21. The council must therefore consider if the accommodation is:
• affordable
• in good enough condition
• in a suitable location
• the right size
• suitable for any health issues or disabilities.
22. The Housing Act 1996 says a dwelling is overcrowded if two people of the opposite sex aged 10 or over (excluding couples) must sleep in the same room. All living rooms and bedrooms are included in the calculation.
23. Councils should avoid using bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation. It should only be used as a last resort in an emergency and then for the shortest time possible. (Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraph 17.24 and 17.30)
24. B&B accommodation can only be used for households which include a dependent child when no other accommodation is available and then for no more than six weeks.
25. B&B is defined as accommodation which is not self-contained, not owned by the council or a registered provider of social housing, and where the toilet, washing, or cooking facilities are shared with other households. This means hotels are included in the legal definition of B&Bs. (Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003 and Homelessness Code of Guidance paragraph 17.32)

Suitability of temporary accommodation review rights

26. Anyone who believes their temporary (not interim) accommodation is unsuitable has a legal right to ask the council to review the accommodation’s suitability within 21 days of the Council accepting the main housing duty. Councils must complete the review within eight weeks of receiving the review request. (Housing Act 1996, section 202)
27. If the applicant is still dissatisfied following a review of the suitability of the accommodation, they can appeal to the county court on a point of law. Applicants can also appeal if a council takes more than the prescribed time to complete the review. (Housing Act 1996, section 204)
28. If the council’s review decides the accommodation is unsuitable, the council must provide suitable accommodation. (Housing Act 1996, section 204)
29. We expect people to use their review and appeal rights and therefore we usually do not investigate when someone has these rights. However, we may exercise discretion to investigate in exceptional cases. For instance, where the Council has failed to inform someone of their right to seek a review.

What happened

30. I have set out the key events; this is not meant to detail everything that happened.
31. Miss F has two children over the age of 10. She contacted the Council on 2 August 2024 to say that she was being evicted. This was because changes to her benefits meant housing benefit was no longer payable. She applied to be on the Council’s housing register.
32. The Council asked Miss F for some documents. On 7 August she replied she could not provide them. The Council asked for further clarification on 3 September. On 5 September, Miss F told the Council that the eviction notice was due to expire on 1 October.
33. The Council interviewed Miss F on 2 October and completed its homelessness inquiries. It decided she was homeless, eligible and in priority need and placed her and her children in a one room, B&B hotel as interim accommodation on 3 October. At this point the relief duty started but the Council did not issue the relevant letter until 28 October.
34. Miss F raised concerns about noise nuisance in the hotel with the Council and also concerns that she had been too long in unsuitable B&B. The Council replied on 14 November that the Government recognised that families may have to stay in B&B for longer than six weeks, due to a lack of accommodation.
35. A one-bedroom flat (Property X) became available. Miss F went to view it and on 25 November the Council wrote to Miss F accepting the main housing duty and offering Property X as temporary accommodation. The letter said:

“… we owe you a new duty under s.193(2) [of the Housing Act 1996] to ensure that accommodation is available for your occupation until we can bring this duty to an end. … In fulfilling this duty we have provided [temporary] accommodation for you at Property X. … If you disagree with this decision, you have the right to request a review. You must make the request in writing within 21 days of this letter. You should provide any additional information which you wish to be taken into account and you may submit written support from others on your behalf. The review would be considered by a senior officer not previously involved with your application.”

36. On 25 November the Council also issued a letter offering a tenancy for Property X. This said it was Miss F’s responsibility to contact the utility companies to have their services connected. Any gas supply would “have been capped off and require commissioning by the Council’s gas contractors. This can be arranged through Housing Repairs…” The letter gave a contact number.
37. The Council says these letters were uploaded to Miss F’s online account on 25 November but Miss F ha sent evidence showing they are not visible. It emailed her with the main housing duty decision letter on 25 November and arranged to meet her at the hotel on 29 November to sign the tenancy for Property X.
38. On 29 November, Miss F met the Council’s officer at the Hotel. The Council says utilities were discussed. It has sent evidence that after the meeting it emailed Miss F with the tenancy offer letter with the utilities contact number.
39. Miss F moved into Property X on 29 November. She says when she arrived there was no gas or electricity connected. Miss F says she did not see the main housing duty letter and tenancy offer letter until after 29 November as they were not uploaded and that she would not have given up the hotel room if she had known the utilities were not connected.
40. Miss F complained to the Council on 1 December that her homelessness application had been ignored, she had been in unsuitable B&B, and the Council had advised she could move into Property X but it had not been ready. The gas was turned on that evening. Miss F says the engineer told her he had tried to uncap the gas a week earlier but no-one from the Council had attended the property.
41. The Council replied to Miss F’s complaint on 10 December. It apologised that the main housing duty letter wrongly said she should register a “new” housing register application. It did not uphold the rest of Miss F’s complaint.
42. Miss F asked for the complaint to be escalated. She said the Council had failed to reply to her emails, take action on her B&B noise complaints, refer her for support with furniture, tell her the flat would not have gas or electricity, and provide a fob to access Property X’s building.
43. The Council’s final complaint response was sent on 30 January 2025. It said:
• It did not have the resources to keep in regular contact and did not reply to emails sent for information. It had no record of some of Miss F’s emails.
• The noise concerns had been passed to the B&B manager and Miss F had been moved to a different room.
• Miss F had advised she did not require support with furniture as she had already bought most things.
• The case officer would have discussed utilities when going through the tenancy agreement on 29 November.
• The fob had now been ordered and posted.
• Miss F was in priority band B on the housing register, in line with the Council’s housing allocations scheme.
44. Miss F came to the Ombudsman. She said she had not asked for a review of the suitability of Property X because the Council’s letter had been unclear that this was possible.

My findings

45. Miss F approached the Council due to impending homelessness on 2 August. It did not finish making inquiries or a decision on her application until 2 October (nine weeks). The Council was aware on 7 August that the section 21 eviction notice was probably invalid due to certain documents not existing, it could have taken preventive action then by talking to the landlord. Instead it waited until 2 October to interview Miss F. Although there are no statutory time limits for making decisions in homelessness cases, we expect authorities to conduct assessments and make decisions in a reasonable timeframe. My view is that up to four weeks is reasonable, so I find there was a delay of about a month in making the homelessness decision. This is fault causing Miss F distress and frustration.
46. The Council placed Miss F and her children in B&B interim accommodation on 3 October. The law says families can only stay in accommodation with shared facilities for a maximum of six weeks. Miss F and her family were in the hotel until 29 November. This is two weeks longer than the regulations allow. I accept this was caused by a lack of accommodation, but it is service failure which has caused Miss F and her children to be in unsuitable accommodation for longer than she should have been. The injustice to them was compounded as one of Miss F’s children was self-harming and under the care of children’s mental health services.
47. Having reviewed the Council’s main housing duty decision letter, I consider it is unclear that Miss F had a right to request a review of the suitability of Property X. In response to my draft decision, the Council noted that the letter had been developed with the advice of counsel and it had received requests for suitability reviews from other residents after they had received the letter. It therefore disagrees that the letter is unclear. The letter refers to requesting a review of “this decision” but does not clarify which decision or that this includes the suitability of the accommodation. I find the letter is unclear, which is fault that caused Miss F to miss out on an opportunity to seek a review.
48. In relation to the utilities not being connected on 29 November. Whilst I accept that Miss F would not have moved into the flat if she had been aware of this, I have seen that the Council emailed the letter to Miss F on 29 November and in doing so, highlighted that, following their meeting it contained information about how to connect the utilities. I have not seen evidence that utilities were not discussed with the officer on 29 November. I therefore do not have evidence of fault by the Council.
49. When we have evidence of fault causing injustice, we will seek a remedy for that injustice which aims to put the complainant back in the position they would have been in if nothing had gone wrong. When this is not possible, we will normally consider asking for a symbolic payment to acknowledge the avoidable distress caused. But our remedies are not intended to be punitive and we do not award compensation in the way that a court might.
50. Our guidance on remedies provides that we may recommend a remedy up to £200 per week for each week over the six-week limit spent in unsuitable B&B accommodation. I consider it is proportionate to recommend a payment of £200 per week in view of the impact on Miss F and her children. For distress caused by fault, our guidance says moderate, symbolic payments are appropriate.

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Action

51. Within a month of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Miss F
2. Pay her £200 to remedy the distress caused by the delay in making a homelessness decision and £400 to remedy the distress of being in B&B for two weeks longer than she should have been (£600 in total).
3. Re-issue the main housing duty decision letter, giving Miss F the right to request a review of the suitability of Property X.
52. Within three months, the Council should:
1. Clarify its main housing duty decision letters to ensure they are clear that a person can seek a review of the suitability of the temporary accommodation being offered.
53. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

54. There was fault by the Council. The actions the Council has agreed to take remedy the injustice caused. I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman